flight 370

While we curse technology for not being able to track the Missing Malaysia Flight 370, everything still remains a mystery. Failing attempts of the military in gathering any concrete information from the radar observations and air-control traffic management database, have made the situation worse. Being a wireless communication engineer, I was inquisitive to understand the air-ground communication and the scope of it failing this badly. In my first post, I talk of the former.

A Duplex (two way ) Telecommunication datalink between the aircraft and ground radio is a thing of 1980’s. What used to happen before that? Well, there used to be a downlink (aircraft to ground radio) voice communication over the VHF Band, where the pilot could send verbal messages to ground station. VHF, for your information, is the very band in which you use the services of FM, Satellite TV and the most modern Digital Radios available today (ex. DRM). What used to happen before that? Well, there used to the Morse Code, where the pilot would look at a chart, spot the symbol that matches his problem and press over it, only with a hope that the circuit completes. What used to happen before that? You mean when the Wright brothers must have faced troubles in their flight? Unfortunately they had to rely on a gun shot in the air and if they fell short of bullets, then shouting at the peak of their voices was the only option.

Fortunately today, both Boeing and Airbus are equally (more or less) competent in adhering to the Aeronautical Telecommunication Network Protocol for Air Traffic Control Communications. Let us try to understand the working of air- ground trans-reception through this simplified diagram I have made for you.

The communication system has two deployments: on the aircraft and on the ground.

On the aircraft, the system is composed of an Aircraft Management Unit and an Aircraft Control Display Unit. The management system is efficiently designed to take care of the trans-reception of digital messages, with or without the intervention of the pilot or the flight crew. It has an easy integration with the on board avionics and has a lot of engineering that goes into the automation and self detection, reporting to ground station and management of the flight failures.

On the ground, the system is made up of a centralized network of radio transceivers for analyzing the datalink messages. After demodulating and decoding the digital messages, they are routed to the various synchronized processors for specific performance analysis and counter measures to be taken, for ex. checking if the desired trajectory is being mapped, through the analysis of the navigation satellite data information sent from the aircraft.

Now comes the important part i.e. the network of communication. The first way is VHF, however it is line-of-sight dependent so you can’t rely on it for communication over oceanic regions. Second method is satellite communication, which can provide you a worldwide coverage. The third and the most recent advancement is HF, which allows you coverage over the polar regions. The aircraft system is intelligent enough to decide which of the three networks is to be chosen on the basis of the current positioning of the aircraft w.r.t ground station.

The flight that went missing is Boeing 777. Boeing, like Airbus, boasts of adhering to all the standards of aircraft-gound telecommunication protocols like ARACS, FANS and ATN. My next post will talk about the scenarios in which such a system can fail. Follow the blog to stay tuned. I really hope we, I mean the radars, can trace the flight soon, provided it has really gone missing. There is still a strong possibility of concealed information which has been given to us by the military of China.

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The joy of creation is unbeatable. I am a creative soul who loves to make things, be it a business plan or a software! I have traveled across the length and breadth of India and thus, I can easily identify with diverse cultures and species.
Einstein said, "If you can't explain it simply, you haven't understood it well enough!" I too will make an attempt to say simple things in a simplistic manner through this blog. Browse through my Article Gallery above!